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Anyone who saw Diji Aderogba’s modest debut, About a Boy and His Muse, at its world premiere at NollywoodWeek 2021, when it was still known simply as About a Boy, would have guessed that landing a distribution deal wouldn’t be straightforward. A film with little to no mainstream Nollywood influences, it was always going to be a tough sell. But only a few would have predicted just how long the search would be. Now titled About a Boy and His Muse, the award-winning film is finally available on Tubi and Accelerate TV after a long distribution search.
After About a Boy and His Muse (renamed due to a titling conflict with an existing North American film) won the Prix du Public (Audience Choice Award) at NollywoodWeek 2021, it continued its festival run. The mostly single-location, few-character film went on to screen at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival 2021, where it won Best Editing, as well as the Direct Monthly Online Film Festival 2021 and London Lift-Off Film Festival 2021.
Since its festival run four years ago, audiences have looked forward to its wider release—a frequent case for a touring Nigerian film. Starring the indelible Chimezie Imo and powered by a young team of filmmakers, it always seemed destined for streaming. For those who, like myself, first saw it at the online edition of NollywoodWeek, the question was never if it would find a home, but where and when.
“The Nigerian film market can be a very tricky place,” says Adio Solanke, a co-producer on the project, in a statement to WKMUp. “As independent filmmakers, given the theme and style we adopted for About a Boy and His Muse, we knew that following the usual Nollywood path to distribution would be hard, if not impossible. So, the festival path to streaming was our immediate goal.”
This was not an unusual goal. Despite the COVID slowdown, streaming was gaining momentum in the film industry, with all eyes on how the entry of streamers would shape or improve Nigeria’s distribution landscape.
Some NollywoodWeek 2021 festival films found distribution sooner than others. For instance, Ekene Som Mekwunye’s one-location comedy One Lagos Night debuted on Netflix just a month after its festival premiere in 2021.
Others from the NollywoodWeek Class of 2021 followed suit to secure streaming distribution. Taiwo Egunjobi’s teen urban drama All Na Vibes, Damilola Orimogunje’s postpartum drama For Maria Ebun Pataki, and Loukman Ali’s mystery thriller The Girl in the Yellow Jumper (a first for Uganda on Netflix) eventually found a home on Netflix in 2023, 2022, and 2022, respectively. These films reflect a broad spectrum of contemporary African storytelling, from kinetic to restrained styles. (All Na Vibes‘ Netflix deal was brokered by Okada Media, as confirmed by Taiwo Egunjobi.)
Yet, the search for a distribution path for About a Boy and His Muse proved more challenging. Between 2021 and 2022, none of the explored multiple home-based distribution options for About A Boy and His Muse materialised “despite receiving consistently positive feedback on the story and film”, as Solanke puts it. “The challenge always boiled down to style, scale, and a sense of familiarity,” he adds.
Eventually, Okada Media (known for facilitating the annual NollywoodWeek Festival) reached out once again to the filmmakers, drawn by a shared vision for the project that “went beyond business.” This time, they partnered to try to find a home for About a Boy and His Muse.
During that waiting period, other projects from director Diji Aderogba were released: the comic act-studded Showmax sitcom Ghana Jollof (the streamer’s first original comedy series in West Africa) and the YouTube web series When Are We Getting Married for FilmTrybe. Yet, About a Boy and His Muse remained without a home, a reflection of an industry landscape that still poses challenges for our established filmmakers in 2025 and makes it even tougher for young directors carving their paths.
Nigeria’s distribution woes deepened in 2024 when Prime Video exited the market and Netflix restrategized its approach. Still, options remain: a mass return to cinemas, the rise of YouTube as a distribution platform, and the emergence of new pay-per-view Circuits.
The 2022 partnership with Okada Media has finally yielded results, securing distribution deals for About a Boy and His Muse on Tubi for North American territories and Accelerate TV for Nigeria, other African countries, and parts of Europe. “Both deals are non-exclusive for 24 months,” actor-producer Funmilayo Mustapha tells WKMUp. “And we look forward to reviews and discussions from both sides of the audience divide.”
“I’ve prayed for this moment because the story is unique and filled with valuable lessons,” shares an elated Diji Aderogba in a statement. “Personally, I believe this film is a gift to those currently experiencing the main theme we addressed. I hope people enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed creating it.”
Written by Adio Solanke (who also served as the film’s editor) and starring Chimezie Imo, Olumide Oworu, Bolaji Ogunmola, Joshua Richard and Funmilayo Mustapha, About a Boy and His Muse tells the story of a budding writer who believes he has found his muse in an intriguing woman, but they soon discover they’re placeholders for each other’s repressed psychological issues.
About a Boy and His Muse is available on Tubi (North America) and Accelerate TV (in other regions).
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